Israeli naval forces claim to have captured a senior Hezbollah operative in northern Lebanon

Israeli elite naval forces captured a senior Hezbollah operative in northern Lebanon on Friday, according to an Israeli military official who announced it on Saturday without naming the individual. 

The forces were Israel’s Shayetet 13, which is sometimes likened to America’s Navy SEALS, according to CNN.

Before Israel made that public, Lebanese authorities said they were looking into whether Israel was behind the capture of a Lebanese sea captain who had been taken away by a group of armed men who had landed on the coast near the northern town of Batroun on Friday, according to The Associated Press. 

“The operative has been transferred to Israeli territory and is currently being investigated,” the military official said.

This is the first time Israel has acknowledged deploying troops deep into northern Lebanon to capture a senior Hezbollah operative since the current conflict escalated in late September. Since then, according to the AP, “Israeli forces began a ground invasion of southern Lebanon and intensified its airstrikes across the country, including southern Beirut and the eastern Bekaa valley, killing most of Hezbollah’s senior commanders.”

Hezbollah issued a statement calling it a “Zionist aggression in the Batroun area.”